Palmerton man pleads guilty in nine criminal cases

A Carbon County man entered guilty pleas in nine pending criminal cases on Monday in the county court and was sentenced to a state prison term.

Matthew Damian Frederick, 25, of Palmerton, told President Judge Roger N. Nanovic II, that he stole to feed a drug habit, which he has had for the past eight years.

Nanovic sentenced him to a total of 28 to 60 months in a state correctional institution on nine criminal counts, adding that the state system was the best place for the defendant to address his addiction problem.

Frederick pleaded to two counts each of retail theft, criminal trespass and possession of drug paraphernalia and one count each of attempted theft by deception, receiving stolen property and flight to avoid apprehension.

Frederick told Nanovic, “I have remorse for it all.” He told the court he hadn’t worked since graduating from high school.

When asked by Nanovic how did he support himself, he said, “I was homeless. I lived in a tent in the woods” near Palmerton.

He said he used heroin and methamphetamine regularly. He said he entered the Salvation Army drug treatment inpatient program but was “kicked out” after just 30 days.

The retail thefts occurred on March 31 and April 4 and 5, 2017, at the Carbon Mini Mart and on Jan. 2, 2017, at the Rite Aid, both in Palmerton. The trespass charges were for incidents on Sept. 1, 2017, at a residence along Lafayette Avenue, and Aug. 23, 2017, a residence along Lehigh Avenue, both in Palmerton. The drug counts stem from incidents on May 20, 2017, and Aug. 30, 2017, also in Palmerton. The flight to avoid apprehension occurred in Palmerton on April 29, 2017, when borough police attempted to serve a warrant on him for an incident in Weatherly. The theft by deception was the Weatherly incident on Dec. 30, 2016, involving a borough resident having checks stolen from her home and Frederick forging her name and trying to cash it. In exchange for the plea, forgery charges were dropped.

The prison term will be followed by one year of probation.

Nanovic also ordered Frederick to make total restitution of $292.96, supply a DNA sample, get a drug and alcohol evaluation and follow any recommendation for treatment and pay court costs of about $1,000. He was given credit for time spent in prison on the charges to be determined by the adult probation office.

Frederick has been an inmate in the county prison and will now be transferred to a state facility.